The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery: National Print Exhibition

Wandering through Barnsdale Park in Los Feliz this past weekend, I stumbled upon an enormous printmaking exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society and featuring work from local Otis College students, the show displayed over 150 contemporary prints of multiple processes, including serigraphy, lithography, and intaglio. Of notable interest in the artworks presented were prints by two artists, JenClare B. Gawaran and Poli Marichal. Although different stylistically, I felt that these two artists' works communicated with one another through addressing similar themes of identity and character.

Gawaran’s print, titled “Manika,” presents the torso of a female body, holding up a paper-chain link of different women (fig. 1). Upon closer inspection, one realizes that the women actually represent the same person dressed in different clothing, such as the scrubs of a doctor, or a traditional Filipina dress. Whether or not the woman depicted in the paper-chain link is herself, it is clear that Gawaran is exploring issues of identity through the multiple representations of the same figure in different suits. Gawaran’s artist statement presented on her website emphasizes her interest in cross or multiple identities, as she remarks, “As an Asian-American, my current work splits the phrase and myself into two separate identities. My goal is to discover aspects of my background that I previously took for granted, as well as to see how I conform (or not) to traditional Filipino customs and expectations.” Manika may be an insight into Gawaran’s anxieties concerning what role she must play in society as both Filipina and American.

Marichal’s print, titled “Vigilia,” similarly represents a certain cultural identity as does the work of Gawaran, but concerns Latin Americans. Standing atop a tall rock, a lone wolf stands quietly, seemingly content with his position as a slight grin crawls across his face. In contrast, cowering beneath the rock is a family attempting to sleep, a child huddled listlessly near its mother’s chest. A water jug in front of the male figure suggests the family has been traveling or hiding for a long period of time, and have now finally closed their eyes out of exhaustion. The difference between the calm, content wolf and the weary, tired family below are indicative, perhaps, of the Latin American immigrant experience as one that is draining and dangerous, a “wolf” constantly on one’s heels. As a Puerto Rican artist, Marichal is likely calling attention to the identity of the nomadic immigrant, never quite at home or at peace in a strange country. This lost, or fragmented identity is portrayed through the exhausted faces of the sleeping family. The prints of both Gawaran and Marichal consider cultural identities and the anxieties or difficulties associated with being the “other.”